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March 20th, 2009Uncategorized
Electronic Arts’ Need for Speed series has a long, storied history, dating back to the 3D0 in 1994. Three new games are currently in development, distinct titles that EA hopes will appeal to different types of racing fans.
Need for Speed: Shift is aimed squarely at simulator buffs, emulating an authentic racing experience with complex physics, fully realized performance modeling and a selection of high-performance vehicles tearing around closed-track environments.
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March 19th, 2009Uncategorized
While Tabula Rasa may have shut down all of the servers, this game is by no means forgotten. As many people head into their favorite gaming spaces this weekend to spend time with friends, at least one group will be missing their favorite MMO haunt. This salute to the end of Tabula Rasa comes to us from Mort, who sent along the follow brief note: [This is] a final salute to the fallen Earth from clan Kaka, [taken] at the Empire State Building. We have a few other final Tabula Rasa contributions, so we'll be adding those in the mix in the days to come - if you'd like to send yours and join the fun, feel free!
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March 19th, 2009Uncategorized
Fall Out Boy launched their highly anticipated online game Fall Out Boy Trail earlier this week and their fans are flocking in droves to FriendsOrEnemies.com to play here.
In just 72 hours since its launch, more than 250,000 fans have jumped onboard the Fall Out Boy Trail with the hopes of winning tickets to the band's upcoming North America Tour titled, "Believers Never Die Part Deux." The tour features support acts Cobra Starship, All Time Low, Metro Station and Hey Monday.
The "Believers Never Die Part Deux" tour supports the band's newest release, FOLIE A DEUX, and current single "America's Suitehearts." -
March 18th, 2009UncategorizedIt sounds like cheating when you have one man controlling two or more characters, but it's more of a pain to work with than it is a straight out cheat. Whatever your feelings are on the situation though, you have to admit, people who do multiboxing have some tremendously interesting setups and rigs to accomplish this difficult feat.
The Escapist has just let loose a feature article detailing the stories of users who multibox, why they do it, and exactly how they accomplish it on their game of choice. It's a very interesting look at the whole situation, especially when the reasons of why these normal people choose to run more account at once in their favorite game rather than just join groups or work solo are fully explained. -
March 17th, 2009Uncategorized
As MMOGs creep into mainstream culture they are becoming a valuable place to conduct scientific research on social systems and behaviors. Are certain MMOGs as addictive as cocaine? Do certain MMOG players use these games to escape from real life or stay more connected? Do certain MMOG players make better citizens? These are just some of the recent questions being asked by academics around the world.
An interesting and informative paper titled Playing a Good Game: Ethical Issues in Researching MMOGs and Virtual Worlds has just been published in the International Journal of Internet Research Ethics. The paper examines a number of ethical issues encountered when researching MMOGs and virtual worlds. What should be considered public or private in these spaces? What can researchers study, record, and reproduce without informed consent or permission? Should researchers simply observe or actively participate in the online community/ies they are studying? Part one of this paper develops a theoretical framework for researching MMOGs and part two presents qualitative data from interviews with five MMOG researchers (City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lineage I, Lineage II, and Second Life). -
March 17th, 2009Uncategorized
FIFA 09 Ultimate Team Types of Cards
One of the most interesting facets of FIFA 09 Ultimate Team is all the different types of cards available to manage your fantasy team. There are about 30 different categories. Below, I have listed some of the main categories with a brief look at their role in the game.
Players – The backbone of the game. Each player has a unique set of attributes based on the real world player. These attributes combine to give the player an overall rating. The overall rating is used to value the player as either a Bronze, Silver or Gold card. There are over 4000 player cards in the game.
Managers – There are 84 real world managers in the game. The manager influences the team by his nationality and his preferred formation. He also has a tactics rating that enables the use of the Custom Tactics feature. He also has a Team Talk rating and a Negotiation rating that add to the value of any Team Talk cards and Contract cards that are played.
Staff – There is a Headcoach, a Physio, a Goalkeeper Coach & a Fitness Coach. These cards form the important back room staff and all have values that add to the appropriate development cards. For example, if you have a headcoach who has a Pace Training value of +3, then any Pace Training card applied will have +3 added to the face value of the card. Finding the right staff can be crucial to building and maintaining your team.
Gameplay Cards – Gameplay cards can be taken into the game and used to influence the on-field events. There are over 80 different types of gameplay cards and they vary in the amount of players they affect and also the time they last. You can improve the throw length of your players, improve any of the attributes, avoid injury and even taunt the opposition keeper and affect his kicking plus many others. They range from 30 minute single player cards to entire game all- player cards. Using gameplay cards intelligently can be crucial in tipping the balance in your favour.
Training Cards – Training cards allow you to train your players and increase their attributes. You can even grow them from Bronze to Gold. All the attributes in the game can be increased.
Advanced Player Training – These cards can be very powerful. By playing these cards on a player, you can permanently change the preferred formation of any player e.g. You might be playing 4-4-2, and as such, can’t use Ronaldinho without impacting your team chemistry because his preferred formation is 4-3-2-1. By playing a 4-4-2 advanced training card on him, you can change this and make him fit in.
Advanced Manager Training – The custom tactic feature is locked out until you get a manager. Each manager has a Tactics rating that allows the use of one to three of the available tactics: Build Up, Chance Creation & Defence. Advanced manger training cards can be applied to the manager to increase his tactical rating and unlock the tactic indicated on the card.
Kits – Kit cards represent the home and away kits of all the teams in the game. If you get a kit card in a pack, you can choose to use it as either your home or away kit.
Badges – The badge cards display a real world team logo and this represents your team’s crest and will be displayed throughout the game including in your training ground and stadium. You will get one in the starter pack, but if you want to change it, you will need to get another badge card and swap it with your existing one. Be sure to utilize the trading area to find your favourites.
Balls – There are dozens of different balls available on cards. You start with the default ball, but getting a ball card will allow to use a different ball in the game.
Stadiums – There are 53 stadiums in the game including a number of brand new ones. Getting a stadium card will allow you to use that stadium as your home venue. Stadiums range from the Bronze small ones in the starter pack up to the state of the art gold ones like New Wembley.
Crowd – Your stadium will start out with a small card. You can increase the size of your crowd by applying a crowd card. They vary from Medium to Large to Capacity. Having a larger crowd will add to your team's morale in home games, and the morale increase will be displayed on your stadium card.
Free Packs/Coins – If you are lucky enough to get one of these, it will entitle you to a free pack of cards. Similarly, a free coin pack will award a specified amount of free coins.
Celebrations – Getting a celebration and putting it in your Collector's Album will then unlock that celebration in game. You can see how to trigger all the 20 new celebrations for the ‘Celebration Help’ screen in the settings menu.
Create Player Items Boots/Hair/Bandanas/Tattoos – These cards, when used, will unlock the applicable item in the Create Player screens. There are 100s of different items that will allow you to create a truly unique individual.
Training Ground – The training ground is the arena in which your player can practice. Getting a training ground card will allow you to change the arena.March 16th, 2009Uncategorized
Harmonix and MTV Games today announced the addition of four new tracks to the Rock Band Music Store catalogue of downloadable content including songs from alternative rockers R.E.M. and The Offspring. In addition, British guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson makes his Rock Band debut.
Known as one of the pioneers of the alternative rock movement, R.E.M. makes its second appearance in the Rock Band music library with next week’s release of the band’s mainstream breakthrough hit “Losing My Religion” from the 1991 album Out Of Time. R.E.M.’s track “Orange Crush” was featured on the original Rock Band soundtrack.
The Offspring deliver two tracks this week including “All I Want” featured on their 1997 album Ixnay on the Hombre and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” from the band’s 1998 album Americana. Rock Band fans now have access to a total of seven songs from The Offspring in the Rock Band music library.
Rock guitarist and critically acclaimed songwriter Richard Thompson makes his Rock Band debut with the addition of “The Way That It Shows” to the Rock Band Music Store. The song was released on Thompson’s 1994 album Mirror Blue. Thompson’s distinct sound and celebrated career earned him numerous awards including Rolling Stone’s 2003 Top 20 Guitarists of All-Time and the 2006 BBC Lifetime Achievement Award.March 16th, 2009UncategorizedI recently received Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS to review. Blue Dragon Plus is a real time strategy role-playing video game that was created much in the spirit of Final Fantasy. Blue Dragon Plus takes quite a few pages from the Final Fantasy Tactics playbook to setup their game. Having spent countless hours playing Final Fantasy Tactics, I could definitely see the similarities between the two.
Initially, I had issues with the game once I started playing. It strictly used the stylus, which I personally do not like to use unless I have to. But once I resigned myself to that, I started tapping away and controlling my characters. You bounce from battle to battle, much like Final Fantasy Tactics, killing different sets of monsters and furthering the storyline. In the beginning, I can honestly say it was dull and monotonous. It seemed like I was always having to babysit my characters because their A.I. seemed somewhat funky to me.
I was just about to give up on the game when I turned it over to my friend to play. We started trading off in-between battles learning how to use the powers and different strategies for each fight. Honestly, after a couple hours the game started to grow on us both a little.
We figured out that the best strategy for most fights was to clump up your characters and let the monsters come to you. Once they got close enough, you’d unleash your shadow powers on them and let your characters automatically enter attack mode. Then just make sure your healer character throws up the area of effect heals and heal over times, and you’re good to go. Pretty soon we were flying through battles, leveling up characters, and growing our party. It really started to feel like a strategy role-playing video game then.
March 16th, 2009UncategorizedHalo is the most critically acclaimed first person shooter franchise, with sales records being unbeaten by any other exclusive on any other console. There is no doubt that Halo 4 will match or exceed the hype that Halo 3 received. The question is: Will Halo 4 turn out to be “technically” better than Killzone 2?
This all depends on whether or not Halo 4 will be released on the Xbox 360 or Xbox 720. We have now seen the power of the PlayStation 3 and what its processors can dish out with Killzone 2 using only 60% of the power of the PS3. That should give us a good example of what more is to come in the future, games are bound to blow us away. Now let’s take a look at Halo 3, it was released towards the end of 2007 and had massive hype around it but did not live up to the hype. It was a great game at that, but was not at the level most were expecting. One cannot say that Killzone 2 is not the most advanced game this generation and has surpassed all games ever made on a technical level at this point and time.
So when will Halo 4 come out? If Halo 4 was to come out this generation on the Xbox 360, I feel that it will not surpass Killzone 2 on a technical level due to the power of the Cell processor and the lack of storage on DVD-9, but it may surpass it on a graphical level knowing that the 360 has a better graphics card than the PS3. But, facts are facts, when you combine the RSX (PS3 graphics card) with the PS3’s cell processor, you can have amazing results. We do not know what the specifications of the Xbox 720 will be just yet, but to be more powerful than the PS3, it will have to almost triple the processing power of what the Xbox 360 has.
Now the fun factor of a game is all an opinion, but that is why I am talking strictly on a technical level. We all like to see games progress in an innovative matter whether it be controls or style, but I’m sure at this day and age, we want to see games improve on a technical level including graphics, physics, etc. Now if Halo 4 was to come out on the Xbox 720, it should definitely surpass Killzone 2 technically, but it all depends on what direction Microsoft goes with the processing power.
I am hoping that this generation, whether it be Alan Wake or Uncharted 2, surpasses Killzone 2 technically, and I’m sure all the graphics whores out there do as well. So Halo 4 outdoing Killzone 2 on a technical level all depends on what system it comes out for and what route Microsoft takes its processing power to.
March 12th, 2009UncategorizedBy simplifying the FPS genre for consoles, thus starting a flood of FPS titles, the Halo series has been widely regarded as a console gaming revolution. It took a genre that had only previously been mastered with a mouse and keyboard and optimized it for home console controls, it became a huge success. Now with a new studio behind the franchise, can Halo work its magic on the real time strategy genre?
When Halo first arrives, what it essentially did was take console first person shooters as a starting point, simplified it in many ways, created a comfortable control scheme and combined it with a deep, interesting narrative and back story. This time around, the back story is already there for the taking, it was the controls that Halo Wars really needed to revolutionize upon.
Halo Wars does this with some degree of success. While only making minor changes to the controls of other RTS games on consoles such as Command and Conquer 3, it certainly feels more fluid and simplified. While Ensemble could have used voice commands such as in Tom Clancy’s EndWar, they have opted for just the controller this time around. Although these controls do not work perfectly or improve far on previous efforts, and certainly does not provide the same experience a keyboard and mouse can offer; Ensemble has done an excellent job of creating a control scheme that is fun and effective to use.
Along with simplified controls, the genre itself has been simplified for the console. Ensemble was clearly thinking of their audience for this game, as many will be fairly new to the genre or could be buying it for the further insight into Halo’s back-story or just want to cause mass destruction. This game is essentially a beginner’s guide to the RTS genre, as it does not bombard the player with complex tasks. The best part of the RTS genre has always been the building of a huge army and watching the destruction they cause. Halo Wars succeeds at this. However, its lack of depth will provide a far less satisfying experience for seasoned RTS players, as it is not nearly challenging or complex enough, and at times can feel a little patronising for them. The units available to play with include many obvious halo units such as Scorpion tanks, ODST, Warthog, though others have been added to beef up the armies to a playable RTS level. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable that the more units Ensemble makes up, the less it feels like a Halo game, but the less units of their own, the less of an RTS it is. Ensemble have struck an impressive balance, and made many of the new units fit perfectly within the Halo universe. Base management is also another mixed palette of good and bad. While the designated building locations in your base make it easier, many fans of the Command and Conquer franchise may miss being able to build their own style of base. Though limited, this again, makes the game much more accessible, especially with the controller.
The single player campaign plays out like the RTS equivalent of a Halo game, which gave the nature of the game, it is rather fitting. What is meant by this is that it is fairly linear with little freedom and a constant set of objectives to follow throughout each level. Although this provides some fantastic moments and set pieces that you may not find in many other games in the genre, the lack of ways to go about your mission certainly does not suit the RTS genre as well as it does in the FPS genre. It is also very short, coming in at around seven hours; it can leave you a little unsatisfied with the end product. The story itself however, is extremely well presented with stunning CGI cut scenes, which are well acted for the most part. The story does a good job of encouraging the player through each level, though at times it can be the only motivator to get through some of the less compelling missions. Unfortunately, the story is based around four uninteresting protagonists. The aging war general, who is half expected to grunt “I’m too old for this crap!” at almost any moment, the cookie cutter, wisecracking action hero, his love interest scientist that dislikes him at first, and finally, the ship AI, providing some female tension with the scientist character and sarcastic humour regularly during both missions and cut scenes. Luckily, the clichés are never too much to bear, but it certainly detracts from the immersion. The plot itself focuses on the back-story of the Halo franchise, only really explored in the novels. Set 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved, the game tells the story of battles that took place on the planet Harvest, a human colony, and later, a planet called Arcadia. As the story plays out, your army will face many setbacks which you are then tasked with putting right. Whether it is an experimental covenant weapon, or the loss of a city. A few twists and turns create plot holes and unanswered questions, as well as player confusion over a certain character’s identity towards the end, but for the most part, the story remains simple, and the character identity crisis can be figured out just by thinking about it for a few seconds. It is a little disappointing that the game did not allow you to play as The Covenant to add more play time and an interesting second view on the conflicts, but as it is, the single player campaign is satisfying for the most part.
The multiplayer, on the other hand provides much more freedom and depth. Basically, skirmish will dump you on a map with an empty base with an opponent in the same position somewhere else on the map. It quickly becomes a tactical arms race, and you may incorporate many of the tactics forced upon you by the linear campaign to help you overcome your enemy. There is nobody holding your hand, telling you what to do here, and it makes a refreshing change from the campaign mode. This mode may provide a daunting experience for new players, though with the single player offering the skills needed to succeed, it is easy to get into once you have ploughed through a reasonable amount of the game. Experienced RTS fans will find the multiplayer the best part of the game, though it is still not nearly deep or complex enough to stand up to the likes of Dawn of War, though it will provide a satisfying experience to newcomers, and is easily the best multiplayer RTS available on consoles yet.
The presentation is mostly unimpressive, though it does not exactly look bad either. The menu will be quick to give a strong sense of déjà-vu to Halo fans; the audio is on par with other games in the series, from the fantastic music track to every gunshot and laser blast. The visuals, on the other hand, look muddy and dull; it can often be hard to remember this is a Halo game at times when only UNSC troops flood the screen. The covenant’s presence to the screen will always bring back the Halo vibe, as will some of the environments of later levels, but many environments are bland, very low detail has been put into units in the game. It is a very mixed palette; you will often see things that impress you but just not enough to stop the dull visuals being noticed.
It is clear that the consumer market for this game is split in two categories; there are the experienced RTS fans, and the Halo fans. Though this game will provide a satisfying experience for Halo fans and newcomers to the genre, it will not provide enough for the veterans. In short, if you are a Halo fan or interested in exploring the RTS genre for the first time, it is worth a buy. If you are an experienced player of the genre, this game may be worth a rent if curiosity gets the best of you. Lastly, if you are in the unlikely position where you are an experienced RTS player that does not own a PC for various reasons, this is possibly the best you can get at this time. This game is unlikely to cause a flood of real-time strategy games, and it does not do enough to become a standout game, but if it has sparked your interest so far, it is likely that this game will be a welcome addition to your collection, and will allow you to diversify your gaming experience away from what you are used to while keeping you in a comfortable, familiar setting. Ensemble has struck the balance between accessibility and depth perfectly, adding their own fiction to the franchise without replacing what was already part of the Halo universe, and overall created a satisfying experience. While not a brilliant RTS game, it definitely deserves the Halo name.
